Report: Reno prosecutors appropriately dropped federal criminal cases

RENO — The U.S. attorney general’s office has concluded federal prosecutors in Reno acted appropriately when they declined to prosecute several cases submitted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

But Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik also found that a small number of those cases should have received additional investigation before the U.S. attorney’s office in Nevada dropped them, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported Thursday.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and others have been pressing the attorney general to find out whether cases dating to 2009 were declined because of a rift between prosecutors and ATF agents.

Kadzik acknowledged in a letter Wednesday to Grassley, Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., that there might have been issues at one time, but he is confident the agencies are now cooperating.

Amodei’s spokesman Brian Baluta said the letter was being reviewed and follow-up questions prepared.

The three Congress members expressed their concerns to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in October after the newspaper reported ATF agents had transferred out of Nevada.

The newspaper cited at least a dozen cases that had been dismissed after Assistant U.S. Attorney Sue Fahami told agents in a Sept. 29, 2011, letter that her office would not take their cases until unspecified issues were resolved.

Kadzik said Wednesday the attorney general’s office in December directed a senior federal prosecutor and an ATF supervisory special agent from outside Nevada to review the firearms cases that had been declined by Fahami’s office from February 2009 to October 2011.

“After completing this review, it was determined that the majority of cases were appropriately declined” and some of the cases needed more work, Kadzik said. “The USAO and ATF worked together to determine the appropriate next steps in each case.”

He withheld further comment because some of the matters had been referred to local law enforcement authorities.

At least one of the cases was picked up by the Washoe County district attorney’s office, with a suspect being charged with a firearms violation .